Wuppertal Institute

The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy is a German research institution that explores and develops models, strategies and instruments to support sustainable development at local, national and international level. Sustainability research at the Wuppertal Institute focuses on ecology and its relation to economy and society. Special emphasis is put on analysing and supporting technological and social innovations that decouple prosperity of economic growth from the use of natural resources.

The Wuppertal Institute collaborates with universities and institutes in Germany and abroad. It has for instance formal cooperation agreements with the Center for Environment and Energy Research and Studies (CEERS) in Teheran, the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of the Tsinghua University Beijing, the University of Osnabrück and the University of Wuppertal. A cooperation agreement was also reached with the University of Kassel. Furthermore, the Wuppertal Institute and the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research (iENTIRE) agreed upon corporate research. Joint research projects with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India are regularly conducted.

The Wuppertal Institute understands itself as an intermediary between science, economy and politics; therefore, its sustainability research design is application-oriented. It has the legal status of a non-profit limited company (gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, according to German law), based in Wuppertal and receives basic funding from the Federal State North Rhine-Westphalia, the sole owner of the Wuppertal Institute. The major part of its funding derives from research projects. Wuppertal Institute’s clients cover governmental organisations ranging from local authorities to ministries at both state and national levels; business and industry ranging from medium-sized companies to corporate groups and industrial associations; civil society ranging from environmental associations to churches, trade unions and foundations.